An apparent overflow at a nuclear power plant north of New York City
spilled highly radioactive water into an underground monitoring
well, but nuclear regulators said the public isn’t at risk.

Officials at the Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, 40 miles
north of Manhattan, reported on Friday that water contaminated by
tritium leaked into the groundwater under the facility. The
contamination has remained contained to the site, said Democratic
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ordered the state’s environmental
conservation and health departments to investigate.

“Our first concern is for the health and safety of the residents
close to the facility and ensuring the groundwater leak does not
pose a threat,” Cuomo said Saturday in a statement.

The leak occurred after a drain overflowed during a maintenance
exercise while workers were transferring water, which has high
levels of radioactive contamination, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman
for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Normally, a sump pump would
take the water and filter it into another treatment system, but the
pump apparently was out of service, Sheehan said. After the drain
overflowed, the water seeped out of the building into the
groundwater.

It’s not like it’s the first time, neither there nor elsewhere:

There has been a history of groundwater contamination at Indian
Point. A federal oversight agency issued a report after about
100,000 gallons of tritium-tainted water entered the groundwater
supply in 2009, and elevated levels of tritium also were found in
two monitoring wells at the plant in 2014. Officials said then the
contamination likely stemmed from an earlier maintenance shutdown.

An Associated Press investigation in 2009 showed three-quarters of
America’s 65 nuclear plant sites have leaked tritium, a radioactive
form of hydrogen that poses the greatest risk of causing cancer when
it ends up in drinking water.

Predictably, Entergy and the NRC both tried to downplay the
seriousness of the tritium leak. They both noted that the
groundwater beneath Indian Point is not upstream of any drinking
water supplies. And while the water flows directly in the Hudson
River, which then flows through New York City and Jersey City,
Entergy claimed that “there is no health or safety consequence to
the public.”

The NRC parroted this line, claiming that the river would dilute the
tritium into insignificance and noting that the amount released was
far below federal limits.

As a corporation with a long history of ineptitude and dishonesty,
Entergy must be held accountable and render the $28 million fine.

Three of the worst-operating reactors are owned and operated by
Entergy: Pilgrim and Arkansas I and II. Entergy’s Indian Point, 35
miles north of New York City, is under heavy attack by Gov. Andrew
Cuomo, who calls for its closure because of the serious public
safety threat. Vermont fought Entergy over the dangers at Vermont
Yankee. For years, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin called for its closing
as Entergy officials lied, under oath, denying the existence of
underground pipes leaking tritium, strontium-90, and cobalt-60. Last
December, an employee at Entergy’s Waterford 3 reactor in Louisiana
falsified fire safety records for 10 months before he was caught.

There are documented violations upon violations. With the NRC
captured by the nuclear industry, where is the accountability?

When Entergy states its principle is to “commit and adhere to
trust, honesty and integrity,” we don’t believe it. Make it
pay. Then shut Pilgrim down.

Diane Turco Harwich

— The writer is director of Cape Downwinders.

How about we shut them all down?
The RTO story continues:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered a joint investigation by the
Public Service Commission and the departments of Health and
Environmental Conservation. He again called for the plant’s closure.

“This failure continues to demonstrate that Indian Point
cannot continue to operate in a manner that is protective of public
health and the environment,” the governor said in a letter to
the PSC.

And since Southern Company’s new Plant Vogtle nuke boondoggle on the Savannah River is only happening because SO isn’t paying for it, we are,
let’s shut those new ones down before they start up.

And no new fossil fuel projects by wholly-industry-captured FERC or its stepsisters FE or MARAD, either:
no more fracking, no new pipelines, no LNG export!